5,000 surface-to-air missiles secured in Libya.

A top US official said on Sunday that a team of US and Libyan bomb disposal experts has secured about 5,000 surface-to-air missiles stockpiled during the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, AFP reported. 

"We have identified, disbanded and secured more than 5,000 MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defence Systems), while thousands more have been destroyed during NATO bombing," Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs told a group of reporters.

Dozens of these missiles were detonated along the shore facing Sidi Bin Nur village, east of Tripoli, as Shapiro, on a one-day visit to Libya, witnessed the event from a nearby secured house.

A joint U.S. and Libyan team of bomb disposal experts has been working for several months now to find these missing missiles which are seen as potential threat to civil aviation.

Gaddafi had a stockpile of 20,000 shoulder-fired missiles before the revolt against him broke out in February.